By Geno McGahee
The 1980s was a great time for horror. The slasher craze began and gave birth to films like FRIDAY THE 13TH, THE BURNING and MADMAN. Everywhere you turned there was another story about a masked killer roaming around with a weapon, killing young people. One of my favorite sort of slasher films was the whodunit sort of flick where one of the characters that you are introduced to is the guy wearing the mask. They eventually explain why they went on the killing spree, which is always fun. It’s sort of like Scooby Doo. I always found these more fun than the monster/slasher films. GRADUATION DAY is a whodunit slasher that really does the genre well and is one of the more memorable films of this sort from that time.
Laura (Ruth Ann Llorens) is competing in a 200 meter race. Her coach, Coach George Michaels (Christopher George), is pushing her hard, demanding perfection. She sprints and before she crosses the finish line, she collapses and dies shortly after. This leads to two different things. One, her sister, Anne (Patch MacKenzie), comes back to town for the funeral and to figure out exactly what happened to her sister, and two, there is a man in a sweat suit and fencing mask going around killing people, while timing the death with a stopwatch. Yes, it’s awesome.
Anne hitches a ride with a fat guy in a pickup truck. The guy is wearing an ascot. Never trust a dude with an ascot. Of course, the guy starts sexually harassing her but she’s tough and grabs his junk and lets him know that she’ll squeeze his nuts until his ascot pops off. I like how they always put one pervert in these 1980’s horror films. There are not enough perverts in modern horror.
The killer has a picture of the track team and is placing a red X over each face as he kills them. The lead suspect is Coach Michaels and he offers no apologies. He is creating a winning team…and he wears a sweat suit…and he has a stop watch… Another suspect is the boyfriend of the late Laura, Kevin (E. Danny Murphy), the curly-haired, harmonica-playing, nice guy, teams up with Anne to figure out who is doing the murders and why Laura died.
GRADUATION DAY also presents another pervert. Mr. Roberts (Richard Balin), the music teacher, has a bad hair piece and wears a powder blue leisure suit. He tells the young girls of the class what they do “in the business” and takes sexual advantage of them. Some say that two perverts in one movie is too much, but I strongly disagree. This character was hilarious.
The death count continues and Kevin and Anne begin to figure out exactly what is going on. This leads to a great showdown between Kevin and the Coach. The two are fighting in the woods when the cops show up and the lead detective screams “Coach Michaels!” (Spoiler) When Michaels looks up, the detective shoots him through the chest three times and kills him. I’m a huge fan of the late Christopher George. Nobody died better than him in film. His death here was so amusing and the fact that he presented little to no threat to the detectives and they still killed him. I think that when all the facts come out here, that detective will be suspended. Coach Michaels was a damn good coach. He deserved better than that.
Future star and WHEEL OF FORTUNE personality, Vanna White, has a small role of a high school girl named Doris. It’s a small role, but she gets to find a dead body and cries and then screams. I think every star starts off in some horror movie.
GRADUATION DAY is a unique whodunit with a huge fun factor. It’s very amusing and so over the top that you can’t help but to enjoy it. The ending is incredible and is one of the standout 80’s slashers. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 8/10
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